Painting and process for the production of the same



g F. BLAU PAINTING AND PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE SAME 2 Sheet-Sheet 1 Filed July 11, 1923 Fig.2

. F. BLAU PAINTING AND PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE SAME Aug. 23, 1927.

Filed July 11. 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ZZZ/Z Patented Aug. 23, 1927.

nnirso stares Parent orF-lcE.

FRITZ IBLA'U, OF BERLIN, GERMANY.

PAINTING AND PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE SAME.

Application filed July 11, 1923, Serial No. 650,820, and in Germany July 12, 1922.

5 the incident light. (It may happen in exceptional. cases that the percentage is slight lv smaller). From this results that the extren'ie differences produced between dark and light on a painting which is homogeneously illuminated. are in a relation approximately 4: to 80 or 1 to 20. In nature one finds however greater differences of brightness. The brightness of the brightest point-s compared with that of the darkest points perceived by the eye simultaneously or almost simultaneously, is sometimes a million times greater.

The following question may be raised Does the art of painting and the arts and industries related to the same require the production-of greater relative differences of brightness than those which could hitherto be realized by means of the pigments at disposal? It is evidently very improbable that the painters and other artists should not be desirous to be able to render the relative differences of brightness of coloured and uncoloured objects in a better manner than it 40 is possible with the aid of the pigments which are at disposal at present. It is however probable that the painter, knowing that no other pigments are at his disposal,

has never troubled himself about the pictorial possibilities of which he might profit it other pigments were at his disposal than those at his actual disposal. v

The above question may therefore well be answered by yes. f

One might further ask if it is possible to produce greater differences of brightness of brightness. and to new types of paintings or pictures in which, with a homogeneous illumination, these increased difierences of brightness are produced. I

It seemed hopeless to attempt to substitute for the lightest colours which are at present at disposal still lighter colours as the greatest brightness is already approximately 80% of the possible. In this direction only an improvement 0t 20% could be obtained. v

On the contrary it will be possible to realize extremly greater proportions between the lightest and darkest points of a painting in starting from the socalled ideal blackbody of physics or from similar bodies. I

An ideal black body or a body which does not reflect any light can be produced in making; in the non-transparent envelope of a large hollow chamber a comparatively 5 small opening. The person who views this opening from the outside sees the same absolutely black (without taking into account an exception which has'however nothing to do with the present case). A black pigment placed near the opening); on the outer surtaco ot the envelope appears therefore, in accordance withthe intensity of the illumination coming from the outside, lighter in any desired degree, wheret'rom follows that a painting can be produced which shows, between the darkest points and the lightest points, differences of brightness which may be increased at will, provided that these darkest points are represented by openings 99 in the envelope of a hollow chamber which, in comparison with the opening, is very large and the chamber is limited by opaque walls.

If such. a hollow chamber, which onthe inner surface is preterablypainted black, is made of very large size and if in the envelope of the hollow chamber an opening of j one square meter is made, which size of the opening may be still very small in .pr'opor- 100 tion to the size of the hollow body, and if this opening is covered with two rows of extraordinarily thin black wires standing perpendicularly to one another the wlres bein for instance at distances of 1 mm. apart from one another, a wire screen being thus formed the mm. thick and arranged 2 meshes of which are 1 square mm., only m square meter. If the wires surfaces, for instance support a white pi ment applied so as toconnect two or more of open squares and cover the same, the proportion of the brightness of these surfaces to the brightness of a not painted surface of the same size is Wires amounts together only to of a 1000 to 1 and not 20 to 1 which was the utmost which could be obtained with the present manner of painting. 1 If all the proportions of brightness between 1 and 20 are called one octave much more than two octaves are at disposal in the present case.

This space into which the observer looks through the trellis work need evidently not be a closed dark space. It will be sufiicient, if it is relatively very dark in comparison with the lightfalling on the paintings. A strongly illuminated painting of this kind. hung up in the open air, will for instance show up especially well at night.

There exists however other means to come very near to the body physically black, but in this case the illumination must be di rected.

If a transparent pane of glass is placed in front of the opening of the hollow chamber,

' it will look absolutely dark if viewed in a direction which does not coincide with, the direction of the reflected rays coming'from a bundle of light rays directed upon the glass pane. If on the glass pane a painting is made with coloured pigments which reflect the light in a diffused manner and if with the aid of a bundle of almost parallelly directed light rays. for instance by means of a projector, the glass pane is illuminted with such 'an intensity that a white zone possesses a brightness which is equal to 1000 by any unit of measurement, a zone painted with a black pigment will possesss of this brightness ora brightness equal to 50. A zone whlch 1s covered wlth dots or thin llnes of reflected rays, a brightness of approximately 5, and a zone not covered at all will possess a quite feeble brightness which could not be considered to be zero as it is not possible to establish an ideal glass pane, viz, a glass aane the reflection of which is absolutely free from diffusion.

Instead of applying the pigments only partly very thin and therefore very transparent layers may be applied.

It otters no ditiiculty at all to produce pro portion of brightness of 1000 to 1 and more.

For the large hollow chamber behind the transparent glass pane a mirror may be substituted withthe same result.

This mirror may be a metal mirror or glass pane or a reflecting dark plate, made for instance of opaque black glass, or even of wood painted black and perfectly. polished, or it may consist of any surfaces whatsoever coated with a glazing varnish. The first mentioned mirror of metal, wood or the like may be directly painted upon; In this case also (with the condition that the directly reflected light of the direct illumination be not deflected into the eye of the observer), the amplified differences of brightness as described may also be easily obtained in an important manner compared with the d iferences obtained at present.

As an example of a form of execution of the invention a painting may be described which is painted on a black mirror of opaque black glass. The light is thrown on this painting, for instance by means of a search light, whilst the observer may be placed at any point, but not in the direct direction of the reflected rays, which direction is determined by the plane of the picture and by the position of the source of light.

The intensity of the illumination produced by the search light will be selected so that the zones which are almost the darkestof the painting, but for which differences of darl ness in comparison with the darkest zone must be still perceived,appear lighter than the latter. I

The darkest zones to be represented are not coated with pigments, so that they are almost absolutely black The zones which must not appear quite so dark but which, in comparison with the brightest zones, must appear darker than the brightest Zones can be obtained with the aid of pigments, which have reflecting values that arein the proportion of 1 to 20, are represented asmentioned above by a partial coating (application of I dark pigment lines or tiny darkly coloured painting has to possess a brightness equal to 566 of the brightness of the lightest white l 1 1 (In th s calculatlon the um diffusel reflectin ca a'bilit of v mlmm y D p y portions of the picture in thick layer of the black mirror is treated as a negligible quantity). b

As each particle of dust on the black part of the paintin reflects the-light in adiflused manner, care as to be taken to protectsuch paintings against dust. If with this ob ectin View the painting is covered with a glass late, the surface of this glass plate must be kept free from dust. V

The pigment may be applied on that side of the transparent plate which is turned away from the observer, said transparent late standing in front of the opening of a iilack hollow chamber or of a mirror which is on the other side of the observer, but care has to be taken that the layers of paint are not applied on the glass plate in such an uniformly dense and flat manner that the capability of diffused reflection is lost. In this case it is easy to connect the glassplate dust-tightly with the hollow chamber or mirror. The black hollow chamber or the separate mirror might be dispensed with, if the parts on the side turned away from the observer which are not covered by pigment are covered with varnish or other analogous dark substances applied with suflicient denseness and smoothness, so that'a mirror effect is produced at these points.

The invention may be illustrated by the following:

Figure 1 is a vertical section illustrating the effect produced with opaque and translucent paint and no paint on the pigment support, in conjunction with a dark or black reflector back of the painting.

Fig. 2 is a like view illustrating the effect in that portion of a picture having a dark space behind the transparent pigment support. 1

Fig. 3 illustrates that portion of a picture Where some of the color is applied to the dark mirror.

Fig. 4 illustrates a picture made in accordance with this invention;

In the drawings the picture frame is in indicatedby a in which is mounted at the front a transparent sheet of glass having a reflecting surface extending only partly over the area of the frame.

Behind the glass plate 6 is an opaque mirror 0 also extending over a part of the area of the frame with the glass platea extending over only a portion of the area not occupied by the opaque reflector'o.

The position of the observer is indicated at d and the direction of illumination is shown at e. i

- f, g, h, i, 70 m, n, 0, are points in the picture that maybe on the front or rear surface of the transparent sheet of glass 1) or on the surface of the reflector 0 according to the composition depicted.v

On a face ofthe' glass, f and Z represent pi 'ment impervious to light or only slightly translucent, while 711, represents a similar pigment layer on the opaque reflector 0. I

In this instance f and Z are shown on the front face of the glass Z2, but they may be on the'rear face. These places f and Z reflect all light that passes therefrom to the eye of the observer as difl'used light, which is indicated by dotted lines.

The parts 9 and 70 on the transparent-reflecting glass plate Z) and the one n on the face of the opaque reflector indicate thin, transparent pigment layers, the one 9 passes most of the light through the glass and refleets it from the surface of the opaque reflector 0 out of the path of vision,'as indicated by the heavy line, from behind this point. Some light will also be reflected from the path of vision by the rear face of the glass plate I) as indicated by light lines, and a small portion as difl'used light reaches the observer, as indicated by dotted lines at this point.

At 70 a small part of the light is reflected fromthe glass plate I) away from the observer, a small part reaches the observer as diffused light, while the greater part passes into the dark background through the opening or portion of the frame area not covered by the opaque reflector 0.

At the greater part of the light is reflected from the opaque reflector out of'the path'of vision,- and only a verysmall part as diffused light to the observer.

The parts of the picture at lb, i and 0 are free of pigment. All light at the point it is reflected from the path of vision, partly by the glass plate I) but-mainly the light passing through the glass by the opaque re- Hector 0 so that no light passes to the observer at (l From 0 the light is entirely reflected from the pigment free portion of the opaque reflector, and no diifusedlight reaches the eye.

It is indifferent whether theparts coated with pigment are on the front'side or on the back of the glass plate, provided they do not reflect like a. mirror, and it is indifferent whether the front side of the painting opposite to the 'observer be coated with varnish or not.

' It is scarcel necessary to mention that,

care has to be taken thatthe surfaces painted with pigments turned towards the observer reflect in a manner as diffuse as pos sible, or be as dull as possible.

It is evident that, independently of the vdirected light which serves for illuminatingthepainting, another light, in the room will influence the differences of brightness. This action is however small if the directed light is comparatively very intensive and it may besides be reduced to the minimum, on the one hand by convenient selection of the distribution of the total illumination of the room, and on the other hand by the utilization of dark hangings and the like.

Without discussing the question to know how far the creating artist will use the novel means,.this invention permits numerous applications in connection with pictures for commercial purposes, for instance advertisements and the like.

Those parts of the pictures .which, with a convenient illumination and with convenient position of the observer, appear, owing to an effect of transparency (with dark back ground, or owing to a mirror effect or for both these reasons, a great many times darker than any other part of the picture which'may be made as dark as pos sible by the application of pigment, will be preferably called over-dark parts.

The word painting may be interpreted as comprising any representation which has several or a great number of degrees of brightness on'the surface, this painting produced in whatever manner and by means ofdifferently or uniformly coloured pigments.

I claim 1. A. painting for directed illumination, comprising between light and over-dark portions a contrast greater than that between the diffused reflections of white and black.

: 2. Apainting for directed illumination, comprising over-dark portions formed by openings in the painted surface suitably darkened at the back.

3. A painting for directedillumination, comprising over,dark portions formed by an opening in the painted surface and a pigment support covering said opening and showing black where not covered by pigment.

4. A painting for directed illumination, which when so illumined has between the brightest and darkest parts, as compared with the difference between the lightest and darkest pigments, a difference in illumination contrast several times greater than can be produced by said pigments, and whose dark portions are represented by portions practically incapable of diffused reflection.

5. A'painting for directed illumination,

, .which when so illumined has between its brightest and darkest ,portions as compared with the difference betweenthe lightestfand darkest pigments,'a difference in illumination contrast several times greater than can be produced by said pigments and in which the dark portionsare formed by a dark mirror. 6. A painting for directed illumination, which when so illumined has betweeni-its brightest and darkest portions ascompared with. the difference between the. lightest and darkest pigments, a difference in illumination contrast several. times greater than can be produced by said pigments and in which the dark portions are formed by dark mirror and in front of which is arranged a transparent pigmentcarrying pane. 7. 'A. painting for directed illumination, which when so illumined has between its brightest and darkest portions as compared with the difference between the lightest and darkest pigments, a difference in illumination contrast several times greater than can can be produced by said pigments, and in which the dark portions are formed by a dark mirror and in front of which is arranged a transparentpigment carrying pane with pigments on the surface opposite to that Viewed by the observer. I I

8. A palnting for directed illuminatlon,

which when so illumined has between its brightest and darkest portions as compared with the difference between the lightest and darkest pigments, a diiferencein illumination contrast several. times greater than can be produced by said pigments, and in which the dark portions are formed by a dark mirror-and in front of which is arranged a transparent pigment carrying pane with pigmenton both sides of said pane, p

9. A painting fordirected illumination, which when so illumined has between its brightest and darkest portions as compared with the difference between the lightest and darkest pigments, a difference in illumination contrast several times greater than can 7 be produced bysaid pigments, and in which dark portions are produced by a dark re-' iiector, and other dark portions are modified by incomplete pigment layers.

10. A painting for directed illumination, which when so illumined has between its brightest and darkest portions ascompared with the differencebetween the lightest and darkest pigments, a difference in iilumination contrast several times greater than can be produced by said pigments, and in which dark portions are produced by a dark refiector and other dark portionsaremodified by incomplete pigment layers and r a transparent pane on which the layers are painted.

In testimony whereof} affix my signature. 

